Changes
by ButtercupSaiyan
Summary: Bubbles becomes a woman, and has to deal with it ...


Changes  
by Buttercupsaiyinjin  
  
Author's note: Bubbles has started her menstrual cycle, and is growing up. How will everyone deal with it? I had to get this out of my head X_X; please do not flame me for perverting the cartoon. Pretty please?  
  
  
Chapter One  
  
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The sky was blue, the flowers were just blooming in the late autumn atmosphere, and the air was full of dying leaves. Oak and maple trees circled the idyllic park. A small blonde-headed girl sat in the middle of knee-high grass, her large eyes transfixed on the flower before her. She giggled and swatted at the plant playfully. A startled butterfly took off into the air, frightened as its small world was upended. The girl chased after the butterfly, laughing gleefully.  
  
The voice of another young child rang out. "Bubbles!"   
  
The girl ran on, oblivious. The butterfly circled higher into the sky, and disappeared in a wink of sunlight. The sky darkened suddenly, and clouds rolled in. A few lone stars twinkled out of the darkness of night descending. Then a long shadow loomed out of nowhere --  
  
The girl turned around, her mouth an 'O' of horror, her pretty blue dress fluttering in the wind, her eyes huge with fear. She inhaled to scream.  
  
"Bubbles, wake up!"  
  
The dream dissolved, and the girl rolled over, mumbling, "Go 'way..."  
  
An irritated green-eyed girl hovered over the other one. Her black hair was in a disarrayed tumble of someone recently woken up -- and not happy about it either. She shook Bubbles until the girl sat straight up, and looked around bewildered.  
  
"Huh?" she drawled.  
  
"Bubbles, you were having a nightmare," Buttercup explained slowly, frowning slightly, "You woke me up, you dork, and we've got school tomorrow."  
  
"School?" Bubbles asked blankly. "Tomorrow?"  
  
"Yeah, school," the other girl said, and yawned.  
  
Bubbles blinked, and looked out the circular window showing all of Townsville. It was indeed nighttime as a full moon hung over the city. The clock on the table flashed 12:03. She looked back at her sister, and clutched her blanket closer. "I don't think I can fall asleep again."  
  
"Why not?" she asked. Bubbles didn't answer right away. "C'mon I don't got all night."  
  
The girl twirled the end of the pillow idly in her hand and darted a look at the other one nervously. Bubbles gulped, and whispered, "Because the bad thing will get me."  
  
"Good grief, Bubbles! You're being a baby!" Buttercup complained, and thwacked the other girl with her pillow, knocking her over.  
  
"HEY!" Twin blue eyes shocked out of all fear and nervousness glared at the green ones they met. Bubbles crumpled, and started crying. She grabbed a rather beat-up stuffed octopus and sobbed, "You're mean!"  
  
Buttercup crossed her arms, and shot a dark look at the wall. She hopped out of bed, still in her pink nightie. In the bed, Bubbles was still bawling, and Blossom opened one eye, yawned, and stretched.   
  
"What's all that noise for?" Blossom asked tiredly.  
  
Bubbles hiccupped through her tears, and looked at her other sister with a pitiful expression. "Buttercup said I was a baby and hit me!"  
  
Blossom grumbled. "Aren't you two too old for this? This is the sort of stuff I would expect if we were all kids! We've got school tomorrow -- "  
  
"That's what I said," Buttercup interjected.  
  
" -- and we need sleep! Now, what started all this?" Blossom said calmly, sweetly even. She gave her end of the blanket to Bubbles, who promptly blew her nose then looked back. "I was having a nightmare."  
  
"A nightmare," Blossom deadpanned, "about what?"  
  
"I don't know ... I'm sorry!" Bubbles wailed. If anything, Buttercup managed to glare more, and Blossom tried her best to console her upset sister. She still had the feeling that all this was just because everyone was a little edgy about the first day of school tomorrow, and they all really needed some sleep.  
  
Her gaze moved downward toward the bed, or, more specifically, the sheets. "Oh my god!"  
  
"Did she wet the bed again?" Buttercup said snidely.  
  
"It's blood!"   
  
Bubbles looked down as well, wide-eyed. Again, she felt that sensation of a scream bubbling up in her throat. She asked in a shaking voice, "What? What's wrong? Am I dying?"  
  
"No, you ain't dying," Buttercup said, giving a superior look to both the scared girls, "You're just becoming a woman."  
  
Bubbles stared at Buttercup incredulously. Her voice was high-pitched as she practically yelled, "What are you talking about! How does BLEEDING make me a woman!?"  
  
Buttercup shot back, "You wouldn't understand it!"  
  
During all this, Blossom crept quietly over to the door and locked it. Whatever was going on, this shouting match would wake the Professor up. Somehow she just didn't see the Professor walking in at this point helping matters any.   
  
"Will you to knock it off?" she whispered harshly.  
  
"It's not my fault! Buttercup is being a butthead!" Bubbles screeched shrilly.  
  
"Why you -- !" Buttercup lauched herself at the other girl, sending the pair tumbling across the bed and onto the floor. They were both trying to pound the other, and cried out angry insults. Blossom watched them quietly.   
  
Her mind was racing, trying to comprehend everything. Ms. Keane, her early kindergarten teacher, had always praised her for a sharp mind. But that had been years ago. Why was Bubbles bleeding like that? What on earth was Buttercup talking about?  
  
She snapped back to the scene before her as the two girls started to get louder and louder. "STOP IT!" she screamed.  
  
They froze. Buttercup slowly let go of Bubble's pigtail, and the other girl pushed her green-eyed sister away. Angry tears were welling up in her eyes. She glared at Buttercup hatefully. "You're always picking on me!"  
  
"That's 'cause you're such a shrimp!"  
  
Blossom grabbed both of her sisters' arms and hauled them up in front of her. Her grip was not rough, but neither was it loose and loving. She was getting annoyed with all this. Even fighting crime and monsters didn't bug her as much as watching her sister, Buttercup, bicker with everyone. She conveniently forgot that she happened to cause half of those arguments. "Will you tell her what's happening to her now?"  
  
The black-haired girl was shocked for a moment then yanked her arm free possessively. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. When a girl becomes a woman, she has eggs in her body, and she's gotta get rid of them every month. The egg is inside a nest of blood, and that's why she's bleeding."  
  
Bubbles was crying now, looking down at her legs, and the edges of her nightie. Blood stained those areas, and it was upsetting. It was her own blood ... not some monster's or criminal's ... Blossom shook her head sadly and Buttercup just kept her stoic mask up, but it was starting to crack with the beginnings of concern.  
  
Blossom unlocked the door, and walked out of the room quietly. Buttercup and Bubbles just looked at each other in an awful kind of silence, one which neither one was willing to break with an apology. They each had their battered pride to think about, anyway.  
  
***  
  
The door to a dark basement-become-a-lab cracked open and flooded the room with light. A middle-aged man in a white labcoat was hunched over a desk lit by a single light hanging from a cord. Papers, vials, labeled boxes, and other assorted gadgets were scattered across it.  
  
"Professor ... "  
  
He looked up from his work, his tired eyes still sparkling with kindness as he looked at his not-quite daughter. Taking care of three children had added gray lines to his black hair, but he didn't regret it. Most of the time, at any rate.  
  
"Yes, Blossom-dear? Is something troubling you?" he asked.  
  
Blossom looked up at him. She was roughly half his height, and her rose-pink eyes were worried. She was trying to figure out how to phrase their problem. "Um, Professor, something is wrong with Bubbles ..."  
  
He leapt to his feet, dropping the papers he was holding across the table. Professor Utoniom looked alarmed. Had something happened to sweet, innocent Bubbles? What evil villain would be depraved enough to come after her?   
  
"Who?" he demanded, "What happened? Did someone kidnap her?"  
  
"Oh, no, Professor. Nothing like that. She's bleeding."  
  
"Bleeding?" He looked confused. "Did she cut herself? You girls should be old enough to know first aid ..."  
  
"No, she didn't cut herself. She's just ... bleeding," Blossom tried to explain again.  
  
The Professor was looking quite lost now. "That's not enlightening me."  
  
"Well ... Buttercup said Bubbles was becoming a woman," she said.  
  
"OH." Professor Utoniom said with sudden insight -- then sat back down in his chair suddenly.   
  
It was bound to happen sometime, but his little Bubbles growing up? It all happened so fast. Why, what seemed like only yesterday he could remember her holding up her latest drawing, or running through the park. Oh, wait, that was yesterday. "Um, er ... "  
  
At this point, he really was regretting not taking a wife. Weren't mothers supposed to explain this to their daughters? What did he know about these things? He yawned, and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.  
  
"I'll go -- get some things to help her. You go and comfort your sister," he said resignedly.  
  
***  
  
He soon found himself driving along the road at 12:35 at night toward the 24-hour convenient store. The roads were empty of most people, and only a few buildings lit with activity. A few cars puttered along through the lanes.   
  
The Professor was lost in his thoughts. One of his baby girls was finally growing up. He didn't know what to do, he was afraid of what to do, to say. Here he was, several degrees and doctorates in science and biology, and he had no idea how to be a parent. He had never really thought this day would come.  
  
Pretty soon, Buttercup and Blossom would be following suite, maybe in only a few more years. Then he would be the father of several teenage sisters. It sounded foreign to him. He was almost protectively possessive of them. He wanted the three charming little girls he knew, so eager in school and crime-fighting. Of course, theirs was not an average life. What would they be like now, when that was only when they were six and seven?  
  
The more things change, the more they stay the same, he told himself. Expect the unexpected.  
  
He blinked and looked up at his surroundings. He didn't recognize this area of town, the dark and abandoned houses, or terribly unkept yards. He circled back around, realizing that he had missed a turn. He really was distracted tonight. And why not.  
  
He eventually found his way to the store, and walked in. The dozing clerk started and stood up straight again as the bell over the door warned her of the customer. "I -- may I help you, sir?"  
  
"Yes. Where are the aisles for ... feminine products?" the Professor asked with a straight face.   
  
"Near the back of the store. For your wife?"   
  
"No, for one of my three little girls," he said, unable to hold back a proud, fatherly smile. They were growing up, after all, and he should be proud of that.  
  
"Oh. Good luck, sir," she replied politely.  
  
"Thanks," he said dryly.  
  
The Professor strode along until he found the aisles he was searching for. He looked at the brands and items available with a lost expression. He picked one that looked suitable, and tucked it under his arm.  
  
He glanced around, as if embarrassed to be seen, but no one was around past midnight here. He also picked up some pain-killer just in case. He headed back toward the counter, dug out his wallet, and paid for it. The clerk saw him out with a nod of the head, and a friendly wave. The nod eventually turned into a sharper incline, and she fell asleep before he was out the door.  
  
The Professor got back into his car, and turned the key. The engine thrummed to life slowly, and he pulled out of the parking lot. The radio chimed to life.   
  
" -- evening, Townsville! It's currently 12:45 and the weather is pretty clear tonight. There are no changes in the news -- for a change of pace, no crimes either -- and the traffic is deserted along the main highways ..."  
  
He eventually tuned the droning voice out, and tried to pay attention to the roads ahead of him. He was in a slight daze, and exhaustion and fatigue were tugging at the edges of his mind. He was struggling to stay awake even in the face of this latest difficulty in his life.  
  
No, not difficulty. A challenge, perhaps, but nothing difficult. Many parents had paved the road before him and he would simply be following in their tracks.   
  
He arrived back at the house, and went up into the driveway. He trudged back into the house, his eyelids already drooping. He handed the bag to Blossom waiting expectantly by the door, then promptly collapsed onto the couch, dead asleep.  
  
His last fleeting thought was that the girls could work this out, they were old enough, and he would deal with it in the morning ...  
  
***  
  
"What's going to happen to me?" Bubbles asked quietly.   
  
"How the heck am I gonna know? Some of the girls said they had stomach pain," Buttercup said, trying her best to be supportive in her own way.  
  
Bubbles just frowned sadly, and kicked her legs slowly from her seated position on the end of the bed. She burst into spontaneous tears again. Buttercup made a grimace. Bubbles was such a baby -- she would have dealt with this in a more mature manner. Ignoring the pain and the blood. It just wasn't nothing to get excited about.   
  
If this had been an enemy, Buttercup would have knocked it across the room and into the floor. Although she might not say it, she hated seeing her sister in pain. She did care for the little twerp, after all, and Bubbles couldn't take care of herself.   
  
Blossom came back into the bedroom, opening the door after knocking. She came over and patted Bubbles on the back, seeing her crying again. She gave a suspicious look at Buttercup.  
  
"Hey, I didn't say nuttin'" the other girl said defensively.  
  
She put a package on the floor, and got out one of the bags and gave it to Bubbles. She opened it and looked at it blankly. "What do I do with it?"  
  
Blossom read off the back of the package. "'Press pad firmly into panties.'"  
  
She slid off her underwear, cringing at the blood there. Blossom averted her gaze, but her sister wasn't as tactful.  
  
"Why are you hairy?"  
  
"What?" Bubbles looked down. She hadn't really noticed, but now that she did, she was disturbed. Her eye twitched.  
  
She got a fresh pair of panties and disappeared into the bathroom. There was the sound of a flushing toilet and she entered the room again. She promptly got into bed, and put the pillow over her head.  
  
"Why does all this happen to ME?" Her voice hit a high octave, making both girls wince.   
  
Buttercup slid over, tapping Bubbles on the back. Alright, so she wasn't as rough and unfeeling as she made herself out to be. "Hey, it's ok. You'll be ok. Don't worry."  
  
Bubbles sniffled. "Yeah, okay, if you say so, Buttercup ... "  
  
"I do so say, and if you don't feel better, I'll ... I'll ... make you eat brocolli!" Buttercup finished lamely. Bubbles giggled.  
  
"I like brocolli, remember?" Bubbles reminded her. Buttercup's face fell.  
  
"Well, whatever," she grumbled.   
  
"I guess I'm growing up now ... uhhn, my stomach really hurts ... " Bubbles said, pressing her hands against her abdomen and leaning back into the pillows. Blossom sighed. Tomorrow was going to be difficult because it looked like no one was going to get to sleep tonight with Bubbles this way ...  
  



End file.
